Today's "Wait, that's the law now?"

Every so often I get a story where my initial reaction is “yeah, that’s right!”, swiftly followed by amazement at how things were prior. Today I found myself rather gobsmacked upon realizing that big companies get tax breaks for moving jobs overseas.

At issue is a bill that stalled in the Senate last month that would end some tax credits and deferrals for U.S. companies for operations overseas.

Though Obama singled out Republican opposition, the bill also failed to get support from some Democrats, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who expressed concern that change would put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage.

At this point, saying that Max Baucus is fighting against an Obama economic policy is just a given. The Blue Dogs haven’t managed to be a big thorn in our side lately, but my guess is they’re going to be ramping up their efforts soon. In this case, it’s difficult to defend the notion of rewarding companies that scrap US jobs and still claim to be representing working Americans.

Although, maybe that’s just it. The GOP does, in fact, represent working Americans. Their policies are made so that no poor people have jobs, so they don’t count as “working Americans”.